Tidal wave could swamp cities

A tidal wave caused by a volcanic eruption is likely to devastate the South Coast of England and eastern U.S. cities such as New York, a scientist warned yesterday.

Although experts have no idea of the timescale, they are convinced that it is a matter of when rather than if.

Boston, New York, Washington DC and Miami could be virtually wiped off the map and tens of millions of people would be likely to be killed or made homeless.

The mountainous wave would be 300ft tall and travelling at 500mph - as fast as a jetliner.

In Britain, the tsunami would be smaller at 40ft. But towns all along the coastline would still face awesome devastation.

The water would smash over coastal defences, threatening tens of thousands of lives and leaving damage running to hundreds of millions of pounds.

The warnings of Professor Bill McGuire, director of the Benfield Hazard Research Centre at University College London, centre on the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Canary Island of La Palma.

He told a meeting in London yesterday that the western flank of the volcano could collapse when it next erupts.

At least 20 years separates each eruption. But as the last one took place in

1971, the next could happen at any time. A huge slab of rock 12 miles long would shear off and plunge into the sea, unleashing massive forces which would sweep across the seas towards Europe, Africa and North and South America.

That would bring tidal wave scenes reminiscent of the 1998 disaster movie Deep Impact, which told the story of a comet colliding with Earth, and this year's climate- change blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow.

Most of the wave's energy would travel west to the U.S. east coast but enough would be thrown north towards the English Channel to cause catastrophic coastal damage.

The tsunami would arrive on our shores with little warning - about four hours after the volcano erupted. The water would reach up to 500 yards inland and up to 1,000 yards up estuaries.

'This is a certain event,' said Professor McGuire. 'It's a matter of how we cope with it, not whether or not it's going to happen.

'These waves will be extremely destructive in their own right, up and down the south coast.

'We are talking about very serious damage. It's a hell of a situaiestion to be in and I don't know how we are going to get around it.'

There is very little monitoring of the volcano, giving virtually no chance of any advance warning of an eruption.

Research which the professor had been carrying out on behalf of the Spanish government had to be discontinued when it withdrew funding. He called for more stud-of the island and closer surveillance of the volcano, which could give up to two weeks' notice of an eruption.

'There needs to be an international approach to look at these big global events and how we might cope with them in the future,' said Professor McGuire.

'The U.S. government must be aware of the threat but I am sure they are not taking it seriously.

They certainly should be worried, as should the island states of the Caribbean.'

In the first stage of the disaster, a tsunami would reach the other Canary Islands in an hour and the African coast in two.

After seven to ten hours, a giant wave would be swamping the Caribbean and crashing into the eastern seaboards of South and North America.

The water would sweep up to 20 miles inland, destroying everything in its path.

Britain last faced such a phenomenon in 1755, when an earthquake in Lisbon caused an unusually large wave to hit southern ports.